Who Said Your Estate Plan Should be “Easy?”

Have you ever woken up one day and realized “I have no plan in place for where all my stuff is going to go when I pass away?” You know the stuff I’m talking about: your house, your car, your investments, your bank accounts. Literally everything that you worked towards and accumulated over all your years on this Earth. Pretty big deal!

As you reminisce, you think about all the effort and time it took to get to where you are at this moment. You went to school. You got a job. You got promoted. You got married and had kids. You worked harder. You got raises. Another promotion. Some years you didn’t go on vacation. You kept saving money. You paid off the house and other loans. You put the kids through college. You reached retirement. The pinnacle. All the blood, sweat, and tears of the last 50 years finally paid off.

You spent 50, 60, 70+ years getting to where you are with all your stuff. You worked and sacrificed for all of it. Now, let me ask you. What makes you think you would tie up a nice, neat plan that accomplishes all of your goals by spending one single 20-minute conversation on it??? 

For all that work to get to where you are, why would you think that it would be as easy as ordering a cheeseburger from McDonald’s to distribute everything you worked for exactly how you want? You scheduled a 20- to 30-minute meeting with some general practice attorney who just got out of a divorce hearing. The attorney asked zero questions of you after you said you needed a Will other than to ask who you want to name as Executor and beneficiaries. The meeting only took 15 minutes!

Exactly what legal advice did you get in that meeting?

Were you instructed about the probate process? Did you know there are ways that your family can avoid going through probate court at your death? Were you told that the Will must go through the probate court process if that is your “plan”? Did the attorney mention the cost of probate?

If your answer to that last question was, “yes, the attorney charged $100 for my Will,” then you misinterpret my question. While that is what the attorney had you pay for those pieces of paper, the actual cost to your estate (and therefore the amount your beneficiaries ultimately will get shorted from their inheritances) is going to be calculated through the probate court’s fee schedule. A rough estimate you can expect is for the attorney to earn around 5% of your entire net worth when he or she handles the probate administration. 

If you own a house, checking and savings accounts, and maybe some CDs and stocks that all total $1 million, you can anticipate your estate owing about $50,000 in probate fees. 

Did I forget to mention that the reason most law firms keep your originally executed Last Will & Testament is so that they will have the first crack at handling administration and getting paid that handsome probate fee?

This is the typical “estate plan” people get. The drive-through order gets placed, because everyone talks about how easy it was to sign a three-page Will and be set for the rest of your life. How do you feel about the cost of that “easy” plan?

The legal community has failed you, more out of self-preservation than anything else. Most attorneys are happy to draw up a Will for you, knowing that they will likely get the first crack at handling the probate administration of that Will. And if you don’t know there’s another, possibly less expensive, option that includes more guidance, then how can you know that this system is broken and is not serving your best interest?

Make no mistake that probate is big business. I’m not saying probate is the worst option, or even the wrong way, to distribute your assets when you pass away.

My point is: most of the families I have met with over the course of my legal career have questions and goals THAT ARE NEVER BEING ADDRESSED WITH THEIR ATTORNEYS. 

If you want YOUR GOALS accomplished, so that YOUR FAMILY is taken care of, give our office a call for a complimentary consultation.